House Committee Tackles Issues of IG Independence

By Jake Wiens

Last week the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing that probed many of the concerns raised by POGO in a November 2010 letter to President Obama. The hearing, called “Watching the Watchers: The Need for Systemic Reforms and Independence of the State Department Inspector General,” focused on POGO’s long-standing concerns involving the independence (or lack thereof) of the State Department Office of Inspector General (OIG).     

POGO first raised concerns about the independence of the State Department OIG in our 2008 report, Inspectors General: Many Lack Essential Tools for Independence. That report highlighted concerns about the threat to the State Department OIG’s independence posed by the OIG’s pattern of utilizing career management officials as IG in an acting capacity. That concern was also raised by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a 2007 report.

In our 2010 letter we expanded on those concerns by uncovering specific concerns about the personal relationship between de facto State IG, Ambassador Harold Geisel, a career State Department management official, and the State Department Under Secretary for Management, Patrick Kennedy. POGO’s letter helped to illustrate the problems posed by State OIG’s pattern of utilizing career management officials as acting IG.  

The House Foreign Affairs hearing provided a great opportunity to bring these issues back into the spotlight (it has been over three years since State OIG has been led by a permanent IG) and to ask Geisel pointed questions about his ties to management. It also provided GAO with an opportunity to follow-up on their 2007 report.

Here are a few highlights from the hearing that I jotted down (we’ll provide more details when the full transcript is made available): 

• Ambassdor Geisel said he thinks it's time for the State Department to have a permanent Inspector General.
• Ambassador Geisel said he recused himself from an investigation involving Kennedy out of an abundance of caution, but maintains that he is not close friends with Kennedy.
• GAO says State OIG has made progress at implementing the recommendations in the 2007 GAO report, but improvement still needs to be made. 

You can watch the hearing in full here.

Jake Wiens is a POGO Investigator.

Comments

[Mary Dean]

The IG at this small agency is not independent, was not appointed by the President and has EEO sitting in the office interfering with the operation of the office.